Hey guys, I don't know if I'm just too stupid to use this software or if it's a feature, not a bug..
In the standard version of BH, is it normal that you cannot add and edit metadata fields in the details page? Is this limited to the ultra version? In other words: can I add metadata like location, used equipment, keywords, etc to imported wav-files or can I only edit metadata that is already written in the file before? Also, sometimes, I see the gear icon in the details page, but mostly, it's gone and I cannot add metadata fields at all.
Here's the background: While being stuck at home (Corona), I tried to do something that I've never done but desperately wanted to do: I am a sound composer and I have tons of fieldrecordings that are terribly organized in a folder structure like year-date-location-content and I always wanted to have a database with custom search fields, regardless of the actual folder structure, so I could search vor specific locations, used equipment, dates or content details. After a long search for a software that can do this I found basehead. So now I have the standard version but I'm completely unable to do anything that goes beyond what I can also do without BH, say rename or reorder the files (roughly 200GB).
Is it me not getting how the software works or is it just impossible what I want to do?
Any help on this is greatly appreciated!
All the best and stay healthy!
Dan
If you are running the latest version of BaseHead then you should be able to edit metadata within the DETAILS panel as this functionality was just recently added into the standard version. May help to flick through the manual to get a sense of how things work:
https://baseheadinc.com/index.php/knowledge-base/details-panel-metadata/
Direct editing from the result list is not possible since some usage cases (larger multi-client companies) do not want access to edit files from the results page, it's designed as a list to browse from but the detail panel offers access to edit all the fields and the Batch Renamer feature (ultra version only) allows rules based batch processing of metadata to update large collections of files easily.
@jasona thanks for your reply! Of course, I checked some of the knowledge base articles, the manual and a video on importing files to make sure I'm doing it "right", but still I don't get further.. I have the newest version installed, re-activated my standard license but it does not matter what I import or from where or to which library - in the details page, I only see fields that are included already in the file since the import. No gear icon above the details page, no chance to add any additional field like microphone type or location.
I can just import my WAV files and change some fields that already were there before like "rating" or "Project Name" or "Category". What I would need is to add and edit fields like the mics I used, the exact location, additional notes on specific sounds that appear in a recording, etc.
@daniel-schulzAh, yes this is because you have the Standard version. You can edit EXISTING metadata in the file but you do not have access to add additional data or view fields that are not populated. This is an Ultra feature and until end of last year, Standard versions would only edit the description field, this was opened up to allow editing of any existing data.
If you need full featured editing and management you need the full featured ultra version.
@jasona thanks for getting back to me and clarify that the software is working as intended. Honestly then I don't really get for whom the standard version is aimed at then, especially given the price. I'm not much into the film business, but to add custom metadata for files that don't have that included would be the no.1 and only reason for me to buy such a software to keep track of my hundreds of fieldrecordings and what's in them.
I don't want to criticize the software, It's probably extremely helpful for many professionals, but for a freelance sound artist like me the standard version has tons of features I don't need but lacks one simple feature that I absolutely need.
Too bad, but it's my own fault, I should have informed myself better before paying 350$ and before knowing if it really does what I need.
Thanks again for your clarification!
Yeah I am a freelance recordist too, I do support and testing stuff for BaseHead but I am also a user. Worked mainly just with small crews doing little independent films and have always had an interest in recording sounds and playing with audio and I started off with an Excel database of all my sounds for years and then trialled MANY different solutions over 10 years before finally settling on BaseHead mainly due to the fact with my testing I had a couple of small issues which were fixed and sent to me within 2 days. This was super impressive to me and from there the software has done everything I need to catalogue the sounds I have recorded.
There is some good info on the capabilities of each version on the main page:
https://baseheadinc.com/index.php/basehead/
basically this is what each version is targeted at:
The Standard version is mainly for the users who need a way to browse sounds to use in projects with the bells and whistles but not really need to enter their metadata or make large bulk changes to data. For your needs you are a sound designer and library creator so you need all the metadata features.
The good thing is you can easily upgrade your license at any time and only need to pay the difference in the version. It can always be a hard pill to swallow when you need tools that cost a bit but as someone who struggled to maintain an excel spreadsheet for 10 years the amount of time i save being able to use a quick and dedicated application for the task is worth the cost.
Are your files any other format than .wav by any chance? Wondering because I've found out that, for instance, metadata fields for FLAC files don't seem to be editable -- even those that are supposed to be user-modifiable... I keep meaning to ask @jasona about whether it's a bug or a feature... I surely would love to be able to edit metadata for any file format that BH supports (and burn it, too, but that's another question) and don't see any reason why it wouldn't be supported -- it's just database fields...
@makarushka should still be possible but might be best to open a support ticket so we can test the files you are working with. Personally, I do not use compressed files at all in my collection, all uncompressed WAV files as it's a bit of a mess working with other file types especially compressed files.
